$MMM has increased the dividend payout ratio to approx. 54% in 2015, up from 37% in 2012. For 2016, the company expects to use $4-6Bil of cash for gross share repurchases or $3-5Bil net of reissuances. This will lead to a reduction of average diluted shares outstanding by approx. 4% thereby increasing EPS by $0.25-0.35.

$ABT's BoD increased its quarterly common dividend to 26.5 cents per share from 26 cents per share. The dividend is payable on Feb. 15, 2017, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Jan. 13, 2017.

$VLY priced 8.4MM common shares in a registered public offering. $VLY plans to use proceeds for general corporate purposes, including to supplement the continued growth in the Valley National Bank's loan portfolio. The offering is expected to close on Dec. 13, 2016. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, A Stifel Company, is acting as sole book-running manager.

$AAL's revenue passenger miles for November 2016 slid 0.2% to 16.8Bil from last year, while available seat miles rose 0.1% to 20.8Bil. Passenger load factor for November 2016 declined 0.3 percentage points to 80.9%. The company now sees 4Q16 total revenue per available seat miles of down 1% to up 1% YoverY and pretax margin excluding items of 6-8%.

$RIG announced the closing of the acquisition of Transocean
Partners. Each outstanding public common unit of Transocean Partners was
converted into the right to receive 1.20 shares of $RIG, which issued approx. 23.8MM
shares related to the transaction. Transocean Partners' common units were
delisted from the NYSE effective December 9, 2016.